Talk:Episode 207/@comment-25150955-20180107062015/@comment-33032810-20180107062623
Pasta (Italian pronunciation: ˈpasta) is a staple food1 of traditional Italian cuisine, with the first reference dating to 1154 in Sicily.2 Pasta Pasta Venice.jpg Different types of pasta on display in a shop window in Venice, Italy Place of origin Italy Main ingredients Durum wheat flour Cookbook: Pasta Media: Pasta Pasta made from durum wheat Also commonly used to refer to the variety of pasta dishes, pasta is typically a noodle made from an unleavened dough of a durum wheat flour mixed with water or eggs and formed into sheets or various shapes, then cooked by boiling or baking. Pastas may be divided into two broad categories, dried (pasta secca) and fresh (pasta fresca). Most dried pasta is commercially produced via an extrusion process although it can be produced in most homes. Fresh pasta was traditionally produced by hand, sometimes with the aid of simple machines,3 but today many varieties of fresh pasta are also commercially produced by large-scale machines, and the products are widely available in supermarkets. Both dried and fresh pasta come in a number of shapes and varieties, with 310 specific forms known variably by over 1300 names having been documented.4 In Italy the names of specific pasta shapes or types often vary with locale. For example, the form cavatelli is known by 28 different names depending on region and town. Common forms of pasta include long shapes, short shapes, tubes, flat shapes and sheets, miniature soup shapes, filled or stuffed and specialty or decorative shapes.5 As a category in Italian cuisine, both fresh and dried pastas are classically used in one of three kinds of prepared dishes. As pasta asciutta (or pastasciutta) cooked pasta is plated and served with a complementary sauce or condiment. A second classification of pasta dishes is pasta in brodo in which the pasta is part of a soup-type dish. A third category is pasta al forno in which the pasta incorporated into a dish that is subsequently baked.6 Pasta is generally a simple dish, but comes in many varieties due to its versatility. Some pasta dishes are served as a first course in Italy because the portion sizes are small and simple. Pasta is also prepared in light lunches, such as salads or large portion sizes for dinner. It can be prepared by hand or food processor and served hot or cold. Pasta sauces vary in taste, color and texture. When choosing which type of pasta and sauce to serve together, there is a general rule regarding compatibility. Simple sauces like pesto are ideal for long and thin strands of pasta while tomato sauce combines well with thicker pastas. Thicker and chunkier sauces have the better ability to cling onto the holes and cuts of short, tubular, twisted pastas. The extra sauce left on the plate after all of the pasta is eaten is often mopped up with a piece of bread.7 Pasta is largely carbohydrates (mainly as starch), with moderate amounts of protein and manganese. Contents Etymology Edit First attested in English in 1874, the word "pasta" comes from Italian pasta, in turn from Latin pasta "dough, pastry cake", itself the latinisation of the Greek παστά (pasta) "barley porridge". History Edit Making pasta; illustration from the 15th century edition of Tacuinum Sanitatis, a Latin translation of the Arabic work Taqwīm al-sihha by Ibn Butlan.8 In the 1st century AD writings of Horace, lagana (singular: laganum) were fine sheets of fried dough9 and were an everyday foodstuff.10 Writing in the 2nd century Athenaeus of Naucratis provides a recipe for lagana which he attributes to the 1st century Chrysippus of Tyana: sheets of dough made of wheat flour and the juice of crushed lettuce, then flavoured with spices and deep-fried in oil.10 An early 5th century cookbook describes a dish called lagana that consisted of layers of dough with meat stuffing, a possible ancestor of modern-day lasagna.10 However, the method of cooking these sheets of dough does not correspond to our modern definition of either a fresh or dry pasta product, which only had similar basic ingredients and perhaps the shape.10 The first concrete information concerning pasta products in Italy dates from the 13th or 14th century.11 Historians have noted several lexical milestones relevant to pasta, none of which changes these basic characteristics. For example, the works of the 2nd century AD Greek physician Galen mention itrion, homogeneous compounds made of flour and water.12 The Jerusalem Talmud records that itrium, a kind of boiled dough,12 was common in Palestine from the 3rd to 5th centuries AD.13 A dictionary compiled by the 9th century Arab physician and lexicographer Isho bar Ali14 defines itriyya, the Arabic cognate, as string-like shapes made of semolina and dried before cooking. The geographical text of Muhammad al-Idrisi, compiled for the Norman King of Sicily Roger II in 1154 mentions itriyya manufactured and exported from Norman Sicily: West of Termini there is a delightful settlement called Trabia.15 Its ever-flowing streams propel a number of mills. Here there are huge buildings in the countryside where they make vast quantities of itriyya which is exported everywhere: to Calabria, to Muslim and Christian countries. Very many shiploads are sent.16 One form of itriyya with a long history is laganum (plural lagana), which in Latin refers to a thin sheet of dough,10 and gives rise to Italian lasagna. Boy with Spaghetti by Julius Moser, c. 1808 Typical products shop in Naples with pasta on display In North Africa, a food similar to pasta, known as couscous, has been eaten for centuries. However, it lacks the distinguishing malleable nature of pasta, couscous being more akin to droplets of dough. At first, dry pasta was a luxury item in Italy because of high labor costs; durum wheat semolina had to be kneaded for a long time. There is a legend of Marco Polo importing pasta from China17 which originated with the Macaroni Journal, published by an association of food industries with the goal of promoting pasta in the United States.18 Rustichello da Pisa writes in his Travels that Marco Polo described a food similar to "lagana". Jeffrey Steingarten asserts that Arabs introduced pasta in the Emirate of Sicily in the ninth century, mentioning also that traces of pasta have been found in ancient Greece and that Jane Grigson believed the Marco Polo story to have originated in the 1920s or 30s in an advertisement for a Canadian spaghetti company.19 In Greek mythology, it is believed that the god Hephaestus invented a device that made strings of dough. This was the earliest reference to a pasta maker.20 In the 14th and 15th centuries, dried pasta became popular for its easy storage. This allowed people to store pasta on ships when exploring the New World.21 A century later, pasta was present around the globe during the voyages of discovery.22 The invention of the first tomato sauces dates from the late 18th century: the first written record of pasta with tomato sauce can be found in the 1790 cookbook L'Apicio Moderno by Roman chef Francesco Leonardi.23 Before tomato sauce was introduced, pasta was eaten dry with the fingers; the liquid sauce demanded the use of a fork.21 History of manufacturing Edit Pasta manufacturing machines were made since the 1600s across the coast of Sanremo. The extrusion press produced large amounts of uniform pastas. The consistency of shapes and texture of the pasta manufactured by the extrusion press is believed to be superior to handmade pasta. This technology spread to other areas including Genoa, Apulia, Brindisi, Bari, and Tuscany. By 1867, Buitoni Company in Sansepolcro, Tuscany in the upper Tiber Valley became one of the most successful and well-known pasta manufacturers in the world.24 Evolution Edit It is to be noted that the idea of using tomato sauce to give pasta its flavour was revolutionary since it was originally eaten plain. The consumption of pasta has changed over time; it was once a small, simple item, but it is now often eaten in much larger portions and as part of complex, sophisticated dishes. Factors such as low prices and ease of cooking contribute to the growing popularity of this staple item.25 In modern times Edit The art of pasta making and the devotion to the food as a whole has evolved since pasta was first conceptualized. “It is estimated that Italians eat over 60 pounds (27 kg) of pasta per person, per year, easily beating Americans, who eat about 20 pounds (9.1 kg) per person.”26 Pasta is so beloved in the nation of Italy that individual consumption exceeds the average production of wheat of the country; thus Italy frequently imports wheat for pasta making. In contemporary society pasta is ubiquitous, and individuals can find a variety of types in local supermarkets. With the worldwide demand for this staple food, pasta is now largely mass-produced in factories and only a tiny proportion is crafted by hand. However, while pasta is made everywhere, “the product from Italy keeps to time-tested production methods that create a superior pasta”.26 Pasta was originally solely a part of Italian and European cuisine owing to its popularity there. With an increase in popularity on a worldwide scale, pasta has crossed international borders and is now a popular form of fast food and a staple in North America and elsewhere. This is due to the great amount of Italian immigration into Canada and the United States around the beginning of the 20th century. Similarly an immense immigration of Italians into South Africa ensured that spaghetti with meatballs became an essential part of South African cuisine.27 Ingredients Edit Since the time of Cato, basic pasta dough has been made mostly of wheat flour or semolina,4 with durum wheat used predominantly in the South of Italy and soft wheat in the North. Regionally other grains have been used, including those from barley, buckwheat, rye, rice, and maize, as well as chestnut and chickpea flours. To address needs of people affected by gluten-related disorders (such as coeliac disease, non-celiac gluten sensitivity and wheat allergy sufferers),28 some recipes use rice or maize for making pasta. Grain flours may also be supplemented with cooked potatoes.2930 Other additions to the basic flour-liquid mixture may include vegetable purees such as spinach or tomato, mushrooms, cheeses, herbs, spices and other seasonings. While pastas are, most typically, made from unleavened doughs, the use of yeast-raised doughs are also known for at least nine different pasta forms.4 Additives in dried, commercially sold pasta include vitamins and minerals that are lost from the durum wheat endosperm during milling. They are added back to the semolina flour once it is ground. Vitamins added include niacin (Vitamin B3), riboflavin (Vitamin B2), folic acid (Vitamin B9) and thiamine (Vitamin B1), added back in the form of thiamin mononitrate. Ferrous iron is also included as a supplement.[31